It's Complicated | Four Family Goals | Lisa Seaton

Well, good morning, City First fam. We are so glad that each and every one of you are with us today. You are in the right place. It's a special Sunday here at City First Church and we're actually continuing today our relationship series that we've been calling It's Complicated because relationships are complicated. And so if you miss any of the last few weeks, I wanna encourage you to go back and watch them. We've been hearing from so many of you that this series has been so helpful. And in fact, I heard a story of a couple who every Sunday they would drive to church together and every Sunday on their way to church, they would end up fighting. I know no one else has ever been there before, but one of the individuals doesn't mind being late. The other individual wants to be early. One's an aggressive driver, one's a conservative driver. So they'd always end up fighting on the way to church for years. And then they would get to church and they'd be like, well, good morning, God is good, right? And they said that the past few weeks, everything has changed and their drive has been completely peaceful. There's been worship music playing. They get to church and they're full of joy and there's an ease and there's a peace.

So he said, well, what changed that it was terrible and now it's so enjoyable? And they said, just one thing has changed. They started driving separate cars to church in the morning. And he said, and now it's so peaceful. No fighting anymore, it's so relaxing. But today we're gonna be diving into the topic of family and we're specifically gonna be talking about goals that every family and every parent should have. And even if you don't have kids, these principles are going to apply into every relationship in your life. But when it comes to family, we have to know that family is actually God's idea. It was introduced in the very beginning of the Bible and it's supported all throughout the Bible. And I wanna acknowledge that families today in 2025 come in all shapes and sizes. There's individuals who maybe you have a blended family and it feels complicated or maybe you have a traditional family. Maybe you're empty nesters and you're going praise God, all our kids are out of our house or maybe you're a single parent raising a family or maybe you're married and you have no kids but you desire to have kids. And if that's a desire that you have, I believe that God will give you your heart's desire in His perfect time. Maybe you're a friendship family,

you have a unit that's full of friends and you've really formed a type of a family. I know for all of us here at City First, we're part of a spiritual family. There's a reason that we always say, hey, City First fam, and we say we're not just a friendly church, we're a family church. Yes, that's talking about generations, but it's also talking about a spiritual family. It says this in Psalm 68, five and six, it says that God is the father to the fatherless, the defender of widows, and God places the lonely in families. That's my story. I moved here when I was 18 years old, didn't know a soul, and God gave me a spiritual family. Anybody grateful for a church that becomes family, that supports one another, that cheers each other on? And before we dive into more scripture, I just wanna take a moment and invite God into this time that we have together. So Heavenly Father, we thank you for who you are. God, we thank you for the gift of family, and we know that family is under attack from the enemy, and so we believe that this message is timely. And God, I pray that during this message that you would have full reign to do what you wanna do.

Help me to get out of the way so that you can have your way. I pray that every heart and every mind would be opened, and God, that we would be tuned in to what your Holy Spirit is wanting to say. Have your way, and in your name we pray, amen. So we know that family is God's idea, and it's God's desire that in every family, he is the center of the family. And there's a lot of things competing for what's at the center of families today. There can be competition that finances are at the center. Everything revolves around finances. Or maybe it's sports. Sports are at the center of your family. You have multiple kids, and you're trying to keep up. Maybe work begins to become at the center of your family. You're both working, trying to make it all come together. Or maybe for your family, it feels like entertainment is at the center, or even your kids are at the center. But the desire is that God would be at the center of every family, and when he is, then your family is positioned to grow, to flourish, to thrive, and to have an environment of peace. But what I know about you, and what I know about me, is we all want God to be at the center, but there's also this tension. A lot of times when I'm talking to people with kids, I'm like, how's it going?

They're like, it's crazy. It's hectic. Our schedule's crazy. We're working parents. We got bills. to pay, we got things to do, we're trying to keep up with all of it and it can start to feel out of control. If that's you, I want you to know you're in good company, you're in the right place today, there is hope for your family and God has great plans for you. But what we know when it comes to family is you never drift into having a Christ-centered family. It takes intentionality. You never drift into having a healthy marriage. You never accidentally are raising Christ-centered kids. You never accidentally are becoming a strong family. It takes intentionality and it creates effort. It doesn't happen by accident. And as this message centers around parenting, if you don't have children, I wanna encourage you, don't tune out. God still wants to speak to you today. And if you don't have kids of your own, I wanna encourage you that every person in this place should have kids in their lives. We are better when we are connected as generations. And this is what it says in Psalm 127 about children, that children are a blessing from God.

So maybe you don't have your own children, but you're an aunt or an uncle, that's an important role. Maybe you have friends that kids, they need your help. Maybe you've got neighborhood kids, you've got grandkids, you serve in kids ministry, you serve in youth ministry. No matter who you are, we all have a responsibility to be engaged in this next generation. We all have a responsibility to be examples to this next generation. And studies show that people who have kids in their life, there's so many benefits. For one, you live longer if you have kids in your life. Do you know that kids teach us how to have childlike faith? I don't know about you, but I know this to be true. Kids are the number one source in teaching us how to not be selfish. We know that's true. Kids bring us joy and they keep us laughing. Adam and I have two boys and a couple of years ago, our kids were begging us, it was summertime, and they were like, please, mom and dad, will you take us camping? We wanna camp out in a tent. And we were like, we are not campers. And they're like, please, will you take us camping? So we finally caved and we said, okay, we'll take you camping. And I booked a mini cabin at a campsite that had air conditioning and beds and a mini fridge. I thought this is camping enough for us.

So even though we had the mini cabin, you still have to bring all the stuff and all the food. And so it felt like we packed up our whole house. We get to this campsite, we're unpacking. And the one thing that we forgot was Adam's toiletry bag. If you know Adam, he is the cleanest person I've ever met. I was like, this is the worst thing to happen to this guy. And I was like, well, here's the deal, babe. I've got body wash and shampoo that smells like a girl or I pack Dawn dish soap and you could use that this week. And he said, I'll take the Dawn if it's good enough for the ducks, it's good enough for me. So we use the Dawn dish soap all week to shower. And we actually had a great time and we're headed home after we packed up the whole, everything that we had brought and we're driving back home and the kids are tired. They played so hard, they're just being quiet. And Ab and I are talking like that was so much fun. And I said, even though it's fun, I can't wait to get home and sleep in my own bed. And Adam said, you can't wait to get home. I've been showering with Dawn all week. And from the backseat, one of the boys just pipes up his voice and he goes, daddy, who is Dawn? And excuse me, Dawn is not a who son, Dawn is a what? Dawn dish soap, pray for us y'all. But the reason I wanna tell you that story is I just want you to know, we are not perfect parents. Our kids are not perfect kids. We're figuring this out with you.

We're figuring this thing out together. And I always say, I'm never gonna be a perfect parent, but I sure am gonna be a praying parent. And I'm gonna believe and pray for my kids and watch what God does in their lives and in your kid's life. We're not gonna be perfect parents, but we can be praying parents. Gotta pray double time for the kid who thought Dawn was a person and not a soap. But when it comes to parenting, there's a reason that the process of bringing a child into the world begins with labor. Cause you go through it and you think it can't get any harder than this. And then it does. And our two kids are pretty close in age. And I remember when our youngest was like two months old and Nash was like a year and a half and we were flying somewhere. And it's the crazy age of the toddlers trying pulled the lady's hair in front of them, our baby's crying, I'm trying to keep them quiet, and people are giving me evil eyes, and I'm like, you were a baby at one point too, so don't be mean about my baby, and so we finally land, and I'm sweating, Adam and I high five, we're like, we accomplished this flight with our little kids, and this man behind me, this older gentleman,

taps me on the shoulder, and he has this nice white hair, white beard, and he goes, ma'am? I said, yes, sir, and he said, I know that this is hard. I said, thank you for acknowledging this is hard, and he goes, yes, it only gets harder. Well, thank you, sir. But he knew then what I didn't know yet. Little people, little problems. Bigger people, bigger problems. Some of you right now are trying to raise teenagers, just get them through those teenage years. If you are a teenager, let your parents get you through the teenage years, y'all need each other. But during today's message, we're gonna get pretty practical on how to have some handles and some goals that we can have as a family. So we're gonna go over four goals that every parent should have for their family, and these actually reflect the four values that we have as a church. Know God, grow in faith, live it out, pass it on. And it's important that you have values for your family. It's important that you have priorities in your parenting, because if you don't have values, and if you don't have priorities for your family, if you don't define them, then the world will try to define them for you. And maybe you've just been trying to get through,

it's been a crazy season, you've got little kids or whatever. I wanna encourage you, take some time this week and define what are our core values as a family? What are our priorities as a family? Not just our ideal priorities, our actual priorities. And if you don't like them, guess what? You can change them, and God will give you wisdom on how to do that. But the first goal every family should have, every parent should have, is that my children will know and love God. The first goal every parent wants to have for their child is that my child will know and they will love God. They will know God and they will love God. They will know Him and they will love Him. The goal is not to have religious kids, it's to have kids that have a relationship with Jesus Christ. There's a lot of pressure right now for parents raising kids, and they're like, my kid has to be great in academics, my kid has to be great in sports, my kid has to be great in all of these things. And yes, you want your kid to have good character and learn discipline, but the goal for parents is not that we raise good kids, it's that we raise godly kids. It's that we raise kids that know God and that they love God. It's important.

And it says this in Psalm 127 about families and about raising kids. It says, unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. This is important because if you're trying to build your house without the Lord, then we're laboring in vain. Don't try to parent without God. Let God give you the support that you need, the wisdom, the insight. He wants to partner with you in parenting these children. It says, children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring, a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. Now when you read that, you're like, that's nice, but what does that mean that children are likened to arrows? Well, when this was written, a warrior, a great tool they would have is an arrow because it would be precise, it was effective. And if you think about the position of an arrow, it comes out of the quiver into the bow, pulled back. Why? In preparation to be sent out. And so the Bible is likening children to an arrow. And they're saying that as you're parenting, what you're doing is you're preparing to send them out from your home into the world one day. And when they get sent out, the most important thing

is that they would know God and that they would love God, that they would know his voice. So when the voice of this world tries to lie to them, the voice of the enemy tries to lie to them, they would say, oh, that's not from God, but that is from God. I know God and I know his voice. One of the best things that we can do as they prepare to be sent out. So how do we do this? Because I don't know about you, but you're like, I'm just trying to get the laundry done. And now we're trying to raise godly kids. How do we do this? We're gonna break it down. This is what it says in Deuteronomy 6, 5, and 7. And this is actually a commandment that God is giving all the people, not just kids, all the people, the adults. He says, Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your strength. These are commandments I give you today and they're to be on your hearts. Goes on, impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. See parents, we gotta know that it's our responsibility to raise our children so they would know

and they would love God. As a church, we are all about family. We invest a lot into families. We love to be a place where families can come and everybody can grow together. We have Wednesday night ministries happening for youth, for children. We invest a lot into our youth and to our students and to our kids and our young adults. But we have to know as parents that you have the most time with your kids. We might have their kids for a couple hours a week, but you have them for the most time. And this verse is saying, while your kids are with you, talk about God and teach them to know and to love him. And I love that this verse actually gives really practical handles. It says, when you sit at home, what does that mean? That can mean when you sit around the dinner table. COVID was not a good time for us and our family, but one of the things that is good that came out of it is it reestablished family dinners for us because we didn't have anywhere else to go. So we got in the habit of eating dinner together as a family. It doesn't have to be a gourmet meal. It doesn't have to be fancy. You better believe my kids are wild still at family dinner. They're not little angels, but we're having family dinner together.

And I wanna encourage us as Christ followers to reclaim the dinner table, to reclaim the dinner table. And this is what I was reading about, the importance of having dinner together as a family. And this is what one of the studies said, that children who regularly share family dinners are more likely to have positive outcomes like higher self-esteem, better academic performance, healthier eating habits, lower risk of depression, reduced likelihood of substance abuse, improved communication skills, and decreased engagement in risky behavior. If you don't know where to start, start with family dinners. And what is regularly, the study says regularly is just three times a week. You're having dinner together as a family. We start off our dinners and we just say a quick prayer. God, thank you for whoever made this meal. Sometimes it's Chick-fil-A, whoever, we're grateful for that. And then we talk about our day. What was good about your day? What wasn't good? What are you looking forward to? What are you not looking forward to? And we just bring God into the conversation. And in our home, when we have family dinners, we make it a screen-free time. No TV is on. Adam and I don't have our phones at the table.

Kids don't have tablets at the table. It's a screen-free time. And having screen-free times is really important as a family, because then you get quality connection. And we have a generation who's being raised on screens. It says this generation spends seven to nine hours every day on their phone for non-educational purposes. The suggested use is two hours a day. This upcoming generation is said to be known as the anxious generation. Do you think there's a correlation between anxiety and the overuse of phone? And as parents, when you're saying, we're having family dinner and there's no phone, and your parent and your kids are mad at you, let them be mad at you. And say, this is how we do it in our family, because I care about raising and training you up to be set out one day and to know God and know how to have a family, know how to have communication. Pastor Craig Rochelle is a pastor. He's raised six children. They're all adults. And he talks a lot about the importance of having screen-free time and not giving your kids phones with internet access too early. He says, when you have a phone and you give it to a kid, it's like giving them porn in their pocket because you don't know what they're seeing.

You don't know what they're looking at. And everything is accessible, even if they don't mean to have it. And parents, it's our responsibility to be raising these kids, not so that they always are happy with us, right? But we are raising them in the ways of the Lord. The second thing the verse says is to walk along the road. Now, in those days, that's how they were going from one place to another. For us, we're driving in cars a lot. And so as you're driving in the car, play some worship music. As you're driving in the car, have meaningful conversations with your kids. I was talking to a friend who their daughter got their license not too long ago. And I said, how's it going that your daughter can drive now? And she said, I actually really miss our car ride conversations. Leverage that time with your kids. There's a lot of junky music that people listen to. Play worship music, things that are uplifting. as you're driving with your car, in your car with your kids. The verse also says, when you lie down, okay, this is super practical, but at bedtime, I don't know about you, how many of your kids are like, at bedtime, it's like, I need a snack, I need you to talk to me,

I need you to tell me another story. They're trying to delay bedtime. But make bedtime focus and bring God into that time. The last thing that they hear before they go to sleep, how awesome if it's their parent praying over them, maybe reading God's word together. And what happens is when your kids are little, they're literally dependent on you for everything. But what Adam and I are praying and trying to do is we're trying to transfer dependency from us to God. And so instead of our kids being like, we need you to fall asleep, I want them to need God. Not only because God is with them when I can't be, but y'all, I'm like a better person and parent and pastor when I've had eight hours of sleep. Like I need my kids to sleep in their beds so I can sleep in my bed. And we're teaching our kids how to turn to God to receive the peace that they need, to receive the help that they need. And for our oldest son, he's about to be 10, that's his next birthday. And we've been teaching him when he's like, mom, I'm having a bad thought. Okay, what does the Bible say about it? What does the Bible say about it? What does the Bible say about it? We open up his Bible. We open up to Philippians, whatever is good, whatever is pure, whatever is true,

whatever is lovely, think on these things. And over the past little while, many times I'll walk into his room after he's gone to bed, after I put him to bed, and I find him like this. He's got his Bible next to him as he's falling asleep. We're not perfect parents. We're doing a lot of things not great, but if he can learn to turn to God's word, to receive what he needs, I know that one day when he's sent out, he will know to turn to God and not to the wrong things to receive what he needs. God has what you need. God has what your kids need. Invite God into the nighttime before they go to sleep and make that intentional time. The next thing the verse says is, and the last thing, when you get up, when you get up. So in the morning, make that intentional. Maybe you get up before your kids and you read the Bible a little bit so that you feel like you're mentally ready to send them off to have a good day. We've got friends that do family devotions in the mornings. We don't have it together to do family devotions in the morning. But what we do is we pray a prayer of blessing before our kids go off for their day. We're reminding them God is with you.

He has what you need. And we're capitalizing on that car ride to school to invite God into their day. When we stack all of these things, they're pretty simple. I think all of us can do it. What we're doing is we're creating an environment where it's normal to talk about God, where it's normal to pray to God, where it's normal to be reading the Bible, where it's normal. And so when your kids have questions about God or they have doubts, it will feel normal that they come to you. And I don't know about you, but I want my kids to come to me when they have questions and they would know this is a safe space and something that our family does. The second goal that every parent could have for their family is that our family will grow in faith. Our family will grow in faith. When it comes to your family, I want you to think about it like it's a picture of a garden, that a family is meant to be growing, that it's meant to be fruitful, that there's good soil, that's a foundation on God, that there's seeds that are being sown, that there's seeds that are being watered, that you're creating an environment of growth.

That means sometimes that there's weeds that need to be pulled so the right things can grow and the wrong things can die off so that it can produce fruit. That's important for our families. And the Bible actually uses agricultural imagery a lot to describe relational truths. It says this in Song of Solomon 2.15, catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom. So this is saying that there's a garden or there's a vineyard and its purpose is to grow and it's trying to grow. It's not usually something massive like this huge natural disaster that's gonna take out the garden, that's gonna take out the vineyard. It's oftentimes the little things, the foxes that come in and they eat the fruit before it's ready, the foxes that come in and dig holes in the garden, or they come and they attack the root system that would provide infrastructure. And I wanna encourage you in your relationships, in your family, in your marriage, look for the little foxes that would try to come in. I know a couple that's going through marriage counseling and their marriage counselor told them, you guys have got to stop rolling your eyes at each other.

Says you roll your eyes at him, he rolls his eyes at you. And I said, I know that it seems little, but it actually communicates something very big. And it can be very dishonoring and it can be very dismissive. And they said, your goal this week is to work on not rolling your eyes at each other. And I know that it seems little, but I think it's a good exercise for all of us to step back and this week assess, have we let any little foxes in? Are there any little foxes that you've let in that's preventing growth in your family or in your marriage? Have you stopped having family dinners together? Have screens gotten out of control? Does everything always feel chaotic? And you're like, no, Christ is not at the center. We're barely hanging on. Have there been compromises in marriage, little foxes, some DMs that shouldn't be happening or things that shouldn't be watching? We got to pay attention to the little things. And here's the good news. If you don't like how things are, God is with you and he will give you the strength and the help to change those things and to turn around what the enemy meant for evil and God will use it for good. Invite God in and say, God, what do we need to change? Have your way. And this is important because in Nehemiah, we're gonna read a passage and in Nehemiah,

he was helping to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down. In the Old Testament of the Bible, enemies came and they destroyed the city walls and Nehemiah gathers the people together and he says to them, as I looked over the situation, I called everyone together and I said, don't be afraid of the enemy. What I know is that the enemy is trying to attack families, but church, we don't have to be afraid of the enemy. He says, remember the Lord who is great and glorious and fight for your brothers, fight for your sons, fight for your daughters, your wife and your home and then God will fight for us. If God has entrusted you with a relationship, with a family, with a garden, it is our job to protect what God has entrusted to us. Fight for your family, fight for your marriage, invest into it, care about it, fight for it in prayer, fight for it with your time, fight to make it your top priority and the good news of this verse is when we fight for our family, God also fights with us. We don't do it in our own strength and I wanna encourage all the single parents in the place, you have a hard job. My sister is a single parent and I see how she's doing double time, mom and dad, right? And if you're a single parent, fight to stay healthy and Christ at the center of your life,

your kid will see that and it will encourage them. If you are a married couple in the place, I wanna encourage you, fight to have a healthy marriage. Invest in your marriage. If you need to go to marriage counseling, go to marriage counseling. If you haven't been on a date in a while, go on a date. Maybe you need to take a trip without your kids to refuel your marriage. Marriage sets the tenor in your home. So make sure you prioritize a healthy marriage and when we do this, we're creating an environment where growth can happen. Spiritual growth, growth in every way. We want our families to be growing. That is one of our goals is that we would grow in faith and as you're doing this, I wanna encourage you, be joyful in your home, have fun together, laugh together, make memories together. The Bible even talks about life is hard and so have joy because joy will accompany you even in the difficult times. The third goal or third value is that we should be parents who live it out. What Joshua says, right? As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Parents and adults in this place, I wanna remind you that your kids are watching. Even if you don't have kids, other kids are watching your life.

This is what we know, children will do what they're told for a while but eventually they will do what you show them. The greatest impact of faith will not be the words that you speak, it will be the life that you live. So prioritize your time with God, be in God's word, spend time in prayer, pray together as a family, model for your kids what it looks like to prioritize God in your giving, in your schedule, right? Like our kids are in sports, it's expensive and it's time consuming. Our kids are like, I don't want to go. I'm like, we paid for this. You're going to practice. You're going to the game. But then it comes to church and it's like, kids are like, I don't know if I want to go. And we can be like, okay, yeah, that's fine. We don't have to go. And by doing this, what are we showing? What are we modeling where our priorities lie? I heard a pastor say it like this one time. What one generation sees as optional, the next generation will see as unnecessary. We can't make it optional to be in God's word, to be in God's house, because if we make it optional, the next generation will see it as unnecessary. More is caught than taught. And maybe you're listening right now

and you're going, Lisa, my kids are out of the house and I didn't do any of that. And maybe you feel burdened. Maybe you have adult children who've walked away from the Lord. And we're going to take a moment in just a little bit. And we're going to pray over all the children, that if their children that have turned from God, they will come back to God. We believe that God is still working. And here's the encouraging thing. God loves your kid even more than you love your kid. As much as you want to see them win, God wants to see them win. And we're going to pray for that in just a few moments. But the last thing, the last goal for every family, and this is for us, is that as a church family, we will pass it on. We will pass it on. You know, there's a lot that can be passed down from one generation to the next. I watched my grandparents pass on a lot of dysfunction to my parents. My parents were raised not with God, had alcoholism in their home, infidelity so much, both sides of their families. And when they were in their 30s, they found Jesus. They're first generation Christians. And instead of them passing down to the next generation, which would be me, the dysfunction that their parents

passed down to them, they passed down faith in Jesus Christ. I wouldn't be here today without them saying, I'm not going to do what previous generations have done. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Today, we watch people get water baptisms and we heard testimony after testimony. I was addicted, but God set me free. I was lost, but now I'm found. I was wandering, but now I have purpose. That isn't just for them, it's for the generations that are gonna come after them. We're gonna pass on. When God was wanting to do something in your life, it's not just for you, it's for the generations that are beyond you, for your children and your children's children and their children. And in the Old Testament, in the book of Judges, we read about Joshua and Moses and God used Joshua and Moses to bring the Israelites out of captivity. They were a part of so many miracles. The 10 plagues that led Pharaoh to release, the parting of the Red Sea, that God provided food from heaven to feed the people. Eventually, Joshua led them into the promised land. But it says this in Joshua chapter two, verse eight. Joshua, son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110, after that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, meaning that whole generation passed away. Another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord

nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and they served the Baal's false gods. So this is saying that even though one generation experienced God's goodness, they didn't pass it on to the next generation. So that generation didn't know God and they didn't serve God. Guys, our kids are gonna serve something. They're gonna serve someone and we want them to serve Jesus Christ. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. So we gotta be a church that passes down our faith, that passes down the right priorities. When you are wanting to get better, I wanna encourage you, it's not just for you. It's for everybody around you. So lean in to the transformational work that God is wanting to do. The best gift that we can give is passing on faith to the next generation. Our greatest success in life will not be what we do. It will be who we raise. And whether you have biological kids or not, there are kids looking to you. There are spiritual kids in this house looking to you. There's neighborhood kids. There's people at your work. There's coworkers. The way you live your life matters.

Children are not a distraction from the most important work. They are the most important work. And we have a responsibility and an opportunity. to pass on our faith. Would you go ahead if you're able and stand to your feet. I wanna pray over all of our families. I wanna pray over parents. I wanna pray over single parents. I wanna pray over kids who maybe have walked away from God. Heavenly Father, we thank you. That family is your idea. And even though the enemy would try to attack families, God, today as a church family, we say we will fight for our families. And we will prioritize Christ at the center of our families. God, I pray for the parents in here that are so exhausted. They're in the throes of raising kids and they're tired. God, I pray that you would give them a fresh vision for their family. I pray that you would renew their strength. I pray for unity in marriages. God, we commit to put you first in our lives. We commit to put you first in our marriages and in our families. God, I pray for the single parents who maybe do feel alone. I pray that they would remember that you are the father to the fatherless and you place the lonely in families and they have a spiritual family here at City First.

I pray that you would continue to provide for every one of their needs and they would be graced to do what you have called them to do. God, we pray for children in this place that they would be raised up following you. Godly kids, not just good kids. God, we thank you that we're seeing revival happen in this next generation and City First wants to be a part of it. God, we thank you for kids workers and youth workers and young adult workers. God, we pray that you would bring more. Father, I pray for children that are adults or young adults or teenagers that have walked away from you. God, I pray they would come back home, that they would have relationship with you. God, I pray that you would surround youth with the right kind of friends, friends that point them back to you. God, we ask that you would continue to do a move in families. May they be strengthened today. May parents be strengthened today. God, we rededicate our homes to you. We rededicate how we parent to you. God, we don't wanna parent without you. We need you, God, we place you at the center. With every head bowed and eye closed, we're talking about relationships

and the most important relationship you will ever have is a relationship with Jesus Christ. And if you're here today and you don't know him personally, I believe today is your day. You're not joining a church, this isn't about religion, this is about relationship, that you believe that Jesus is the son of God, that he died for your sins and he gives you a fresh start. And if you wanna make that decision today, I wanna encourage you to lift your hand on the count of three with no one looking around except for me, one, two, three. Would you lift your hand if today you say, I wanna follow Jesus, hands up all over this room. Best decision that you will ever make. If everybody will repeat this prayer so no one's saying it by themselves. Heavenly Father, thank you for your son, Jesus, that he died for me, forgives my sins, erases my sins, gives me a fresh start. Today I choose to follow you and in your name everybody said amen. Best decision you will ever make. What an amazing day, what an amazing service, what an amazing message from Pastor Lisa and once again we wanna thank you for joining us. If you are watching and you made that decision and just prayed that prayer to make Jesus the leader and forgiver of your life, best decision ever. We're celebrating with you, heaven is rejoicing.

We are so excited for you and you're probably asking, okay, so now what? We wanna go on the journey with you in your faith and so a couple things that we want you to do. Number one, tell somebody about the decision you made, share with them, let them know and then we have a resource for you to go through. It's called New Beginnings Resource and it just answers the questions, now what? It has some great things to explain in there. It brings you back to the word of God and so we encourage you to get it. You can either scan the QR code, go to our website or if you want a physical copy, you can stop by one of our in-person locations but we're so excited. We are celebrating with you, best decision ever. And a great next step after the New Beginning Resource is to go through our growth track. All it is is it's there for you to discover your God-given purpose and design. It's a great follow-up set for me. I learned that I have a huge heart for the youth so I've been pouring in as much as I can because that's what also fills me up. And so if you're looking to get into that, you can go feel free to check out on our website. It starts at the beginning of every month. You'll go through with people, you won't be alone. It's a great experience.

Yes, and then also make sure to download the City First Church app if you haven't already. There's a way that you can enter prayer requests on there and we have people praying all week for every single prayer request that comes in or you can DM us or you can drop it right in the chat there if you need prayer for anything. And then we also have resources and Bible reading plans available on the app as well so make sure that you check that out too. Yes, and we say it all the time, but the best thing you can do is come back to church. We mean it. Having you here is amazing. amazing. You can only get filled up as much as you're willing to get filled up, so keep coming back. You guys are our family. Bring someone with you. Don't do it alone. City First Anywhere. Invite people over to your house. Have a little breakfast club. Sit down. Watch service together. Do life with people. We love you guys so much, and we'll see you guys next week.